Black fisherman repeatedly confronted by white neighbors, who ask what he’s doing there
Anthony Gibson said his TikTok videos show “what people like me have to go through when they live in a nice neighborhood.”
Springwater Plantation
I just can't get past how appropriate that name is.
In fucking Georgia. Why didn't they just name it "White Power Hills"?
That should be the nickname for Stone Mountain.
Didn't catch that on my first read. That's so on the nose. I wonder what his parents say when they come to visit lol
"I’m not afraid of anybody,” Gibson said. “But do I want to get out of this house and go fishing and do any of that stuff around here anymore? Hell to the no."
No Offence but this is how racism wins, this end result was entirely what the racist wanted and they got it. They don't have to lynch you to kick you out of a neighborhood, just mildy harrass you to the point where a person self segregates and then what? I mean the end goal is the same for the racist at the end of the day. Don't give them the satisfaction
Don’t give them the satisfaction
You're asking someone being harassed and threatened to keep fighting and deal with it. It's not on the victim to beat their abusers. It's on society to stop the abusers. That town should be arresting the racists for harassment but since the cops are likely supporting the racists, an ACLU lawyer should be stepping in pro-bono to sue the shit out of these people/department. Unfortunately it's rarely that easy to affect systemic change.
They're not asking the victim anything, they just made a statement of fact that when we bow to the bully, they get their way.
You're right that the town should be stepping up. But, the reality is that most of them are republicans and would not piss on him if he was on fire, let alone step up to support him. So all that remains as options are to fight back (I think his current tack is the best one), move away, or isolate. Feels like you shot the messenger (OP) here.
You're right about he fighting part, not about the "deal with it" part. I'm not sure how you equate one with the other. If we don't fight back against racism, then that is "dealing with it". Fighting back is what I just said to do.
In general, yes. If you're getting harassed and threatened and you want that to change, you should fight and deal with it. Nobody ever won anything by simply rolling over for anyone who was mean to them. Worse than that, society probably won't support you if you do, even if they should.
It's up to the individual how strongly they want to fight for it, of course, but I certainly wouldn't discourage them from doing so.
If the racism is institutionalized, the racists will always win in the end. I work with people with disabilities and the list of places I can't take people with dark skin keeps growing. There was a park we used to enjoy until someone started stalking us, as if that wasn't bad enough the cops were called on us every time by the stalker. They knew they only needed to get the racist cop once for it to work, and us knowing that too means we can't go back. They got what they wanted.
This helps no one and accomplishes nothing, just saying we should "deal with racism" is racism in itself.
Institutional racism will always exist as long as that's peoples attitude towards it. Civil Rights never would've gotten anywhere if black people were just complacent ALL the time, if black people didn't make noise they never would've been heard by white people and forced to think about these issues.
Shortly after the video was posted, Gibson said he learned online that Petty had been fired from her job as a massage therapist at Sea Glass Therapy, an emotional wellness center. The business’s owner, Jennifer Yaeger, declined to comment to NBC News on the matter. The wellness center announced that Petty had been fired on a since-deleted social media post.
I love this for her racist ass.
I saw a video of another community member coming by after this happened (while he was fishing of course) and basically begging him to contact her work and explain it’s a misunderstanding. He declined lol
After his confrontation with Petty went viral, Gibson said Thomas Drolet, president of Springwater Plantation’s board of directors, asked him to release another video saying the encounter had been a “misunderstanding.” The reason cited by Drolet, Gibson said, was that Petty needed her job back to pay her “big mortgage.”
“We live in the same neighborhood,” Gibson said. “I’m not going to help her get her job back. She still hasn’t apologized to me. I haven’t seen her since.”
You go, dude. Fuck that lady. And fuck the guy asking him to mischaracterize the interaction.
I like her name, Tanya Petty.
This was bound to happen.
Gibson, an actor, said the harassment began about a year ago. He was sitting at the lake with a friend who is white, and nearby were two white men whom he didn’t know. One of the men approached Gibson and asked him to provide his address. When Gibson declined, the man called the police. Although he remained calm, Gibson said he “probably was the most upset I’ve ever been.”
“I’m telling the police, ‘Why are you bothering me?’” Gibson said. “I said, ‘I can’t believe that you’re bothering me this much and all I’m doing is fishing.’ I’m not smoking. I’m not drinking. I’m not partying. I’m not making loud noise. I’m not loitering. But you asked me all of these questions.”
Two other white men fishing nearby told Gibson that they had been fishing at the pond for seven years and had never been questioned, even though they didn’t live in the community. Since then, Gibson started capturing all incidents on camera.
Predictable but still infuriating.
No one should be shocked to know that both the state senator and representative for Newnan are Republicans, the Federal Congressman is Republican, and Coweta Country went 67% for Trump in 2020.
I put on my website, "black lives matter as much as anyone's. Racism is white people's responsibility."
Got my ass shunned by most of my car forum "friends" where I'd been for 20 years. (I'm and out of the closet gay man, that may have had something to do with it. Lol).
Responsible -- didn't say guilty of. That's on you.
This poor SOBs white neighbors need to stand up for him. "he's my neighbor, what's your problem?" type stuff. That's how it's our responsibility. It's not up to black folks to deal with our (collective) racism.
I hear you. It's definitely hard for a lot of white people to understand our responsibility for reconciliation after so many years of brutality. But that doesn't mean the responsibility doesn't exist.
Germany is still working through its responsibilities for WWII and the holocaust even though few current Germans lived through that.
On the bright side, at least racists are getting more polite now that they know they’re on camera.
Racists gunna racist.
I want that on a t-shirt.
Racism sure seems to rot the brain. I hope he takes his son fishing and continues to put these crusty old racists on blast.
Standard racism. It is unfortunate but not too shocking.
